Page:Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine.djvu/353

delirious from large doses of quinine. He says assaults are often clearly traced to the drug taking of the assailant. A surgeon from a New York hospital, in speaking of drug habits before an audience at Chautauqua, New York, said that some of the ovarian difficulties which demand operations are the result of over-dosing with quinine.

There are people who keep morphine in the house all the time lest some little pain or ache should find them unprepared.

Dr. Crothers, who has perhaps made more of a study of the evil results of drug taking than any other man in America, says of this:—

"Morphine as a common remedy, taken for pains and aches, may suddenly develop into an incurable craze for its continuous use. * * * The early relief which morphine brings to the sufferer is often the beginning of an unknown journey ending in disease and death."

Cases are on record where morphine given to mothers soon after the birth of children to allay pain, has resulted in the death of the infant, the morphine having poisoned the milk.

Cocaine is possibly the most insidious of all drugs yet known. Few of those who become enslaved to it ever are able to lay it aside. It leads to hallucinations of sight and hearing. Many persons have become enslaved to cocaine unwittingly through its use in catarrh snuffs, asthma "cures," and other proprietary preparations, the composition of which was secret. Some states now have strict laws regulating the sale of this dangerous drug.